Tests Are Pointless

School basically only tests you on memorization and the ability to follow simple instructions. That's all important and all, but that does not come anywhere near to measuring a person's intelligence. When was the last time you had a test that determined how creative you were? Or when school tested you leadership skills, teamwork skills, social skills? The real things that people need to succeed in life? Where's all that? I mean, let's be honest here, the vast majority of things you learn in highschool is about as useful as a fork in a gun fight.

Exams test nothing but memory

If you give students the same test they did a week ago a week later I'm guaranteed they'll fail because they don't remember and now im jsut adding twenty seven more words because its needed but the only thing i had to say was that tests dont test anything yeah

Schools test memory

Schools 100% test your memory. In fact its stupid because some people are extremly intelligent but they dont show it in school because the schools dont test their itelligence. Everyone is itelligent in their own way and i believe instead of making students feel bad about themselves when it comes to test and dumb exams they should focus on what students are truely good at.

Heck yes school tests memorization

No point in me writing my argument cause it is pretty obvious. I will write a short argument though. In the future, which is what school is "trying" to prepare us for, we will have a lot to our disposal. We don't have to memorize how to spell everything, we don't have to memorize synonyms for words, we don't have to memorize every grammar rule. Why? Because we have the internet at our disposal, schools are just stuck in the past, where memorizing was easier than researching a book every 5 minutes when you have a doubt, but the school needs to get with the program and realize this is pointless. Look at math formulas. Sure application and how to use them is important, but when tests don't give you the formula, you may know how to use it but fail because you forgot it. In real life, you can easily search up the formula or most likely have it at your disposal. I will end my point here cause I could go on forever... Bye! Have a nice day I guess

Cram, memorise, forget. The modern-day education system summed up

Whenever a child is told that at the end of the year they will be "tested" on the knowledge they have gained that year, what does that actually refer to ? It certainly doesn't refer to the child's ability to decipher complex questions and problems they may face in real-life situations. Instead children are taught that intelligence stems from how well you know the contents of a textbook. There are no questions which require out-of-the-box thinking, hut rather questions focused on answers found within the contents of that particular subject's textbook. What does this tell us ? Well naturally, if exam questions are based solely or focused largely on the contents of a book, it would be disingenuous to refer to the education system as anything other than a memory test. As a new year passes, a new textbook is brought into the fold with different contents focused largely on the same topic. So instead, the approach becomes more focused.

The problem with this however, is that in doing so, we inadvertently program the developing mind of the child in such a way that the mind becomes memory-oriented as opposed to problem-solving oriented. This is because the child which scores the highest grade in an exam is not the child who best understands what he/she is learning, but rather the child who is able to effectively memorise as much of the content in the textbook as possible and adequately answer each question in relation to the contact that he/she has absorbed. This is especially problematic because we essential teach children that although there may be alternate ways to answer a question, the answer ultimately depends on what is printed in the textbook and by doing this, we restrict the mind tremendously because this method teaches children from an early age that new ways of thinking are not encouraged. The textbook essentially takes over the role of thinking and problem-solving abilities of the brain.

This also explains why the majority of today's youth feel disillusioned about education and the doors of opportunity it could open for them. When someone spends the vast majority of their youth being a sponge and absorbing as much words and "facts" as they possibly can, only to one day discover that their merit for a job is judged by a 2-3 page resume, they're bound to grow disillusioned and question the very system imposed upon them, especially when they see the results that years of studying may yield, yet a musician who drops out of school and writes a song about it can earn more than 10 times what they earn in a lifetime through educational studies.

How do we explain to our children that education is the key to success when we so blatantly ignore the fatal flaws within the system ? How can say things such as "memory is intelligence" when memory refers to your ability to remember information while intelligence refers to the efficiency of the brain in terms of deciphering information ?

Im a student and by experience i can say, yes.

First of all, intelligence is harder to define than memory. Someone might be good at math, but that means they are mathematically intelligent. The same person might be for ex. Bad at socializing, while being gifted at math. Second of all, memory is based on facts and information you perceive in the class and memorize. You can't pass the test if you have not been in the class, because you have not been perceiving key information to memorize about the subject itself. Now the same applies to you if you are ignorant. A person described as ignorant can still be intelligent, but gets bad grades simply because the subject does not interest this particular person. When the subject doesn't interest the student, student is going to ignore the information and so on not memorize it. In other words, intelligence itself doesn't help if you are not willing to perceive the information and memorize it. Schools test both intelligence and memory but most of all, motivation and how willing the student is to put effort to memorize the facts and make sense of the information he/she has observed in class. In that case, memorization is the key, but school does indirectly test intelligence too, because intelligence determines what facts the student sees as most important to memorize and how he/she is going to make sense of the information that he/she is going to memorize.

Im a student and by experience i can say, yes.

First of all, intelligence is harder to define than memory. Someone might be good at math, but that means they are mathematically intelligent. The same person might be for ex. Bad at socializing, while being gifted at math. Second of all, memory is based on facts and information you perceive in the class and memorize. You can't pass the test if you have not been in the class, because you have not been perceiving key information to memorize about the subject itself. Now the same applies to you if you are ignorant. A person described as ignorant can still be intelligent, but gets bad grades simply because the subject does not interest this particular person. When the subject doesn't interest the student, student is going to ignore the information and so on not memorize it. In other words, intelligence itself doesn't help if you are not willing to perceive the information and memorize it. Schools test both intelligence and memory but most of all, motivation and how willing the student is to put effort to memorize the facts and make sense of the information he/she has observed in class. In that case, memorization is the key, but school does indirectly test intelligence too, because intelligence determines what facts the student sees as most important to memorize and how he/she is going to make sense of the information that he/she is going to memorize.

Students do get tested on memory more than actually what school is for.

School is supposed to be for LEARNING not cramming stuff into your head for an exam or writing an essay with no resources about how the sun works. It's so unfair. Apparently students with good memory are the smartest and may do no studying while students that may not have the best memory are struggling and stressing.

The ones who have good grades aren't always the smartest.

Most of the students in my school that have good grades, have absolutely no common sense and when I am around them, I can't believe how anyone can possibly be so dumb.Studies show that intelligent people are less social and have less friends. Everyone at my school is very social and they are always doing ridiculous things and making a fool out of themselves.I don't usually socialize with them, because I think what they do is foolish.

Too much emphasis on memorizing facts and not enough on concepts

For true innovation we need people to understand concepts not just memorize facts. Too much of standardized testing is just about memorizing facts. I'm not against standardized testing in principle I just think they should be designed to test a studnet's grasp of the concepts moreso than facts. And get rid of multiple choice. You know it or you don't know it.

Your Memory IS Your Intelligence

If you can't remember something, do you really know it? Schools are not IQ tests, and IQ tests are irrelevant for the most part, anyway. Schools are not meant to test your base intelligence--they are meant to teach you. If you are taught something, you should be expected to remember it. If I were to give a speech on the societal effects the Civil War had, but I can't remember, why in the world would anyone listen to what I have to say? I obviously don't know my material. That's what schools test--do you know what the school has tried to teach you? If you can't remember it, obviously not. If I went to school to learn how to fix a broken AC, but I forgot everything I learned, and I try to fix an AC, I would be useless. It doesn't matter if I have an IQ of 150 or 10, if I forget what I am taught, it's as if I was never taught at all.

Schools can test you on things that they haven't taught you yet to see what you know.

I think that school test both. But I feel that intelligence is tested more than schools teach memory. During the school year, you do study for tests, but you have to know how to manage your time wisely and how to comprehend the words in the paper. This argument could go both ways, but overall, I think schools test more intelligence that memory, but they do test both.

No, they test both.

No, schools do not test your memory and not intelligence, because schools test both. Students must be intelligent enough to comprehend the material in order to write it on exams. It depends on the way that the questions are asked, but math must be understood, not memorized. Students must be both intelligent and studied to do well on tests.

Think about the math equations

In math classes you are taught problem solving processes and solutions in the algorithms and formulas used to solve a problem. This core skill then transfers into one's other classes such as science and English so that one can look at a scientific or literary question and analyze what is happening in the situation rather than what their teacher tells them. History is the only subject that is based on memorization, but that is only because the sole purpose of history is to have us remember what happened in the past and use that knowledge to prevent prior problems from happening in the future. We need the core elements of intelligence that we get from schooling to be able to analyze and rightly choose one opinion over the other. It is not a pointless walk of memory games and pointless tests. It is the foundation for how we will go about solving our internal and external problems when we get into the real world and have to make on spot important decisions.

You are questioning the whole education system by saying that schools only test memory.

Schools must have been set up keeping Something in mind, and not only for testing how better we can memorize stuff. A person doesn't go to school just to test his or her memory, but sharpen the blunt intelligence. Grades are what make a difference between a doctorate and a terrorist.